Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to

Burling brings Kiwis to match point with one-second win Peter Burling's Emirates Team New Zealand started the day with a 2-1 lead in the Louis Vuitton America's Cup Challenger Playoff Final over Nathan Outteridge and Artemis Racing.

Two hours later, Burling was sitting on match point, holding a 4-2 lead and taking a stranglehold on the series. But it was far from easy, with the winning delta on the final race of the day of just one-second.

The first team to earn five points will advance to the America's Cup Match presented by Louis Vuitton against two-time defending champion ORACLE TEAM USA.

In the Louis Vuitton America's Cup Challenger Playoffs Semi-finals, Artemis Racing won three consecutive races to defeat SoftBank Team Japan and Outteridge and his team will have to repeat that performance to advance to the match.

Sunday dawned with dark clouds and stormy skies in Bermuda and an ominous forecast - rain showers and thunderstorms crossed the Great Sound race area throughout the early afternoon and racing took place in winds that peaked near 15 knots and dropped as low 8 knots.

Racing is scheduled to continue in lighter conditions on Monday afternoon.

* In race 6, once again Artemis had the lead at marks 1 and 2. On the first upwind leg, the Kiwis tacked to port and Artemis did a big dial down, aiming at the Kiwis and forcing them to make a big alteration of course, and fall off their foils. Still the Kiwis are going faster and come to the top gate even with Artemis. Down the run the Kiwis pass in more wind on the left side of the course and build a decent lead during legs 4, 5 and 6. At the final gate, the Kiwis mismanage the lay line and fall off their foils in a gybe. Artemis was bearing down on them at 40 knots while the Kiwis were doing 15 knots. The Kiwis got up and foiling just in time to win by 1 second.

Heart stopping stuff for Kiwi fans.

The Kiwis now lead the series 4-2. Artemis has to win 3 in a row tomorrow to win the series while the Kiwis need just one more win.

The Kiwis have been behind at Mark 1 and 2 in all 6 races of these finals. Today, Artemis' smaller boards helped them on leg 1 but they paid for that on the upwind legs in races 5 and 6.

Still, Peter Burling is going to have to do better in the starts and boat on boat situations to beat Jimmy Spithill and the Oracle team in the Cup. -- Paul Cayard

North Atlantic Storm Hits OSTAR & TWOSTAR Fleet In the early hours of Friday 9th June, 60 knot winds and 15 metre seas were experienced by competitors, caused by a very low depression (967 mb). These extreme conditions caused damage to many boats with 3 emergency beacons (EPIRB) triggered. The Canadian coastguard in Halifax immediately reacted to the situation sending ships and air support to all the boats in distress.

There was drama at the death at the World Cup Series Final in Santander, Spain as the Men's Heavyweight Dinghy, Finn, Medal Race provided a tense finale.

Four new World Cup Series Champions were crowned earlier on in the day but the best of the action was in the last race of the week, the Finn, where the medals were decided on the final run.

After a beautiful, sun-baked, windy week of racing in Santander, the final day saw a light, 6-8 knot, north westerly breeze under grey skies. Although the air temperature was cool, the competitive sailing was hot and five close Medal Races, entwined with gripping and tense narratives, played out on Santander Bay.

Great Britain won the Nations Trophy, awarded to the best performing team at the World Cup Final, after they won nine medals, three of each colour. France and Brazil followed in the medal tally.

The 2017 World Cup Series has now drawn to a close. Sailors focus will now shift to their respective class world and continental championships.

The 2017-18 World Cup Series will commence this October at a new location in Gamagori, Japan. In early 2018, the series will head to Miami, USA then Hyeres, France before a concluding final at a venue to be confirmed in June/July.

Taking it in the right order - Club Swan 50 With the launch of the ClubSwan50, Nautor has rewritten the book on how to ensure the best possible one-design racing with a new offshore class

A great deal has happened in Finland since the sea started to freeze over and the sun dipped lower in the sky last autumn. In fact, a lot has been happening since the first three ClubSwan50s appeared at the marina outside the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda back in September 2016 for the Rolex Swan Cup.

In most cases when a new one-design is developed there is little time or drive to improve on the boat after the first examples hit the water. The incentive is simply to fill the order books based on that first impression. While first impressions of the ClubSwan50 were all extremely positive, Nautor, along with the ClubSwan50 steering committee, saw potential to not just produce a good boat out of the box, but to spend a little time and make it really stand out from the crowd.

So rather than accepting that the first boat and the 20th boat would all be tied to the problems that are only found with the benefit of a proper shake-down, Nautor took the opportunity over the autumn and winter to work on and refine the ClubSwan 50 based on the input of the designers, Nautor experts and professional sailors.

J/70 Open European Championship Royal Southern Yacht Club, Hamble UK" After nine races, the 2017 J/70 Open European Championship is decided. Claudia Rossi's Italian team, racing Petite Terrible, retained their title in a thrilling final day of high speed action in the Central Solent.

Jose María Torcida's Spanish team, racing Noticia, were second and Peter Duncan's American team, racing Relative Obscurity, scored an impressive 2-1-1 to snatch third on the last day. Top British registered boat was the Maltese/British alliance of Calascione & Ripard, who finished the regatta in fourth place.

The young team from the Royal Thames YC Academy, skippered by Tim Gratton, and helmed by Fiona Hampshire, was the top Corinthian J/70, placing an impressive 5th overall. Another young team, Jack Davies' J/70 Yeti, from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, was second in the amateur class, and Simon Ling's Team Spitfire was third.

The last day of racing was full of drama, Petite Terrible won the first race, putting pressure on overnight leader, Noticia. The Spanish team fought back in the penultimate race, to get ahead of Petite Terrible at the crucial first top mark, only to see their spinnaker explode in a gybe. Noticia quickly hoisted their second kite, but in a high calibre fleet they couldn't recover. Petite Terrible held their nerve in the last race to win the J/70 Open European Championship for the second year running.

In a field boasting Olympic medallists and numerous world champions from other classes, one third of the teams had mixed or full women teams and both the Open and Corinthian European Champions, in the J/70 Class, featured women at the helm.

Vladimir Krutskikh snatches Finn World Masters title After trailing the leaders all week, the 2015 Finn World Masters champion, Vladimir Krutskikh, from Russia, turned the tables on the fleet to win the medal race and the title as the 2017 Finn World Masters drew to a close in Barbados. Laurent Hay, from France, had his chances, but ended up second, but also took the Grand Masters title as well, while the leader for much of the week and definitely the best sailor here after winning five of his six races, Rafael Trujillo from Spain, ended up third.

It was another, and the last, day of Finn sailing in paradise. And it was another windy, tough day of challenging sailing in Barbados with big winds, big waves and big wind shifts. It was time for the final showdown. The medal race would define who took home the medals and it turned out to be a dramatic, and for some, calamitous, conclusion to an otherwise perfect week of racing in the Caribbean.

It has been an extraordinary week of first-class Finn sailing in Barbados, and the sentiment as everyone departed was that the class wants to come back sometime in the future. Next year the Finn World Masters meets in El Balis, in Spain, for what is expected to be a bumper edition.

Smooth Sailing for Marion Bermuda Race Forty-seven boats are enjoying a pleasant sail so far in the Atlantic Ocean near or in the Gulf Stream. They are racing from Marion to Bermuda in the 40th Anniversary of the Marion Bermuda Race.

The scratch boat 'Jambi', a new Hinckley Bermuda 50 skippered by John Levinson and race veteran 'Defiance,' a Swan 56 skippered Peter Noonan, are leading the fleet and were some 300nm from Bermuda doing 6.5kts on Sunday morning. They may reach Bermuda by late Monday but that depends winds in the 'happy valley' between the Gulf Stream and Bermuda, especially the last 100 miles to the rock.

Some of the boats behind them are finding calms, the 'parking lots', and shifty winds. Wind in the vicinity of the leaders was dropping from 12kts to 5kts and should be swinging from the SW to the NE as they head south. From there, it is variable and light.

Three boats, 'High Cotton', 'Momentum', and 'Black Mallard', who had engine problems, returned to ports on the east coast. There were no reasons given why 'Momentum' and 'High Cotton' retired.

'Wind Tango',a Beneteau Oceanis 430 skippered by Ed Redmond, had a problem before the start and returned to Marion for repairs. Skipper Ed Redmond phoned race headquarters from their mobile phone at 18:50 on Saturday. He said that Kingman Yacht Center had replaced a cracked thru hull and they were on their way. Redmond was very pleased by the service of Kingman. At that time 'Wind Tango' was headed for Cuttyhunk.

The race officer asked them to confirm that they are still on route for Bermuda and they said that they aren't going to win anything at this point and "are just cruising". They did not say that they are withdrawing from the race.

Later a caller from 'Wind Tango' reported that they are "officially pulling out of the race". He said he was "flying to Bermuda tomorrow and "would be attending the dinner". Their position on the YB screen is back in the harbor at Marion.

All of the yachts carry YB Trackers and can be followed on yb.tl/mb2017

Letters To The Editor - Letters are limited to 350 words. No personal attacks are permitted. We do require your name but your email address will not be published without your permission.

* From Tony Leech:

After over a 160 years of failing to win the Auld Mug, it is time we accepted that until we have the fastest boat we never will.

Following the 1976 Olympics in which Reg White won a gold medal in the Tornado class catamaran, I asked him whether his crew, John Osborne called the tactics.

He replied in his broad Essex accent 'Boy we don't do tactics, we make sure we have the fastest boat, get the best start and just pull away'.

This approach was even successful in one race when John fell off the boat and Reg had to go back and pick him up.

A fast boat allows minor errors without affecting the outcome. With a slower boat, one is always playing catch up after the smallest misjudgment as was shown in the A.C. series where boats were touching 44kts.

With British innovation and ingenuity surely we can produce a really fast boat over the next 4 years.

For a start, I suggest we should have the hydraulics powered by professional cyclists who can produce 500w for extended periods and obviously, have a much greater power/weight ratio than the usual grinder.

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